The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I'm looking for some plinking ammo for my K98k. I've found some cheap ammo online but it is steel case that is lacquered. I've heard some say it's fine, others say to avoid it. What do you guys think?

King Johhny wrote:I'm looking for some plinking ammo for my K98k. I've found some cheap ammo online but it is steel case that is lacquered. I've heard some say it's fine, others say to avoid it. What do you guys think?

I wouldn't use it. I've bought the Canadian what they call CIA ammo cheap enough even recently I paid .40/round. It's the best ammo if you ask me. Brass and non corrosive.

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Sounds like Romanian surplus, there was a lot of that around some years back, came in the same spam cans the 7.62x54r used. Dirty but fired ok, you have to pay special attention to cleaning the chamber thanks to the lacquer transferring from fired case to chamber wall. I never had any problems with it.

Junk Yard Dog wrote:Sounds like Romanian surplus, there was a lot of that around some years back, came in the same spam cans the 7.62x54r used. Dirty but fired ok, you have to pay special attention to cleaning the chamber thanks to the lacquer transferring from fired case to chamber wall. I never had any problems with it.

Thanks for the reply. the ammo I'm looking at says 8x57mm JS .323 bore. I've heard it wont work in some Mausers. Will it work in my K98k?

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/ ... sGuide.com

Most post 1900 rifles, I think after 1905, K98, Yugoslavian, Czech and most others will be a .323 bore or suitable for the JS rounds. That ammo you link too is correct for your rifle.

The ones such as the older Commission Rifles can be 8mm as well, if still in original form these would use the .318 bullet, for which very little ammo remains any more.

Romanian, at least the surplus stuff shoots good, but like JYD said is dirty, it stinks too and give the chamber a good cleaning.

Just to clarify I wouldn't use it for the reasons the other stated. Mainly because of the mess it makes. It shouldn't harm your rifle in anyway.

I also find no reason to use corrosive ammo anymore. The price difference between corrosive and non corrosive isn't a whole lot, except for 7.62x54r, so I would rather use the non-corrosive ammo.

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When I had a M 48 I got some in dark green or dark grey laquer 8 mm, that would fail to feed, break rims extracting, some I had to wait to cool down til they unstuck. It wasn't a wore out rifle. Brass ammo shot fine. I've got dark green Bulgarian Mosin ammo thats as good as any I've got. I think Mosin cases being tapered is a + factor for Mosin extraction.

I shot hundreds of these style rounds in my surplus rifles and never experienced an issue.
A big plus with the ammo you linked to is that it is non-corrosive. To me that indicates it is most likely recent production.
The only concern I would have is if the actual bullets are steel or steel core. Most indoor ranges do not allow its use.
Finally, as others have mentioned, there isn't much price difference between this ammo and commercial brass cased ammo.

For some reason that ammo that Sportsman has is finicky about what Mausers it will fire in. It likes my Czech VZ24 and will not chamber in my RC K98.

I use laquered cased ammo all of the time, I avoided it at first based on the stories I heard until I read something from the owner at Barnul that makes a lot of the Russian ammo out there. Stories are that the lawyer on the cases gets hit and transfers to the chamber causing a buildup that's hard to remove causing rounds to get stuck in the chamber and such. The real deal is that it is steel and doesn't expand like brass leaving a small gap for the gases and some dirty blast materials to enter the chamber area, the heat from your firearm does not get hot enough to melt the laquer off of the casings, you can't even get it to come off with a torch, the standard type you may have at home or work. It takes a great deal of heat to melt this type of laquer and the issues these guys complaining about the steel case laquer covers ammo is they aren't cleaning their rifles from the dirty stuff caused by the gap because it's steel cases not from the laquer getting in the chamber, this is what I read and he said he'd put anyone to the test in the matter. So I buy it cheap and shoot the he'll out of it !

Have used hundreds of rounds of polish laquered ammo in 7.62x54 with no problem. Appears to be same as copper wash. God Bless America .Pro libertate Patria

Lacquered case, copper washed, brass, the idea that one has a choice these days, mostly not. These days it's going to be if you can find anything at all for most folks who want to shoot 8mm mauser or any other surplus caliber. In 2004 I could have pulled out a shopping list of different type surplus ammo's, these days that selection is gone unless you peek in my private ammo stash.